Delian League Essay

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Recommended: In what ways was the delian league successful

The success or failure of the Delian League is an interesting question from our perspective of being removed from it’s inception by almost 2500 years. We have the means to examine it’s efficacy in terms of both it’s stated aims and the historical impact that it had to it’s members and the other hegemonic powers of the era. There may be different answers to these questions due to a success or failure being a subjective judgement, but also due to the approach to the question. I seek to show a historical development of the league from it’s inception to it’s dissolution, and I will do this by splitting my essay in to three sections, covering the creation of the league, it’s activities up to it’s dissolution after the Peloponnesian war, and then I will sum up the discussion with an evaluation of the alliance’s success.

Inception

Rawlings (1977), in his examination of Thucydides’ …show more content…

In his examination of Thucydides writings he states “What Thucydides clearly means to stress is that from the very first, the Athenians used the Delian League for their own hegemonial ends” (Rawlings, 1977). If we were to measure the success of the Delian League as Athens’ empire then it is not so clear that it had been a success. The transition from alliance to empire, beginning with the subjugation of Naxos, was not smooth at all, with the growth in Athens’ power being mirrored with a growth in dissatisfaction of the other members. Aside from this, throughout the 74 years of it’s existence tensions across the Greek world had only increased and war between states had been devastating to many states, and ultimately to Athens, weakening them to the point of being an ineffectual defensive. After the League dissolved, the threat from Persia became all to real again, and by 387 BCE (Cartwright, 2013), Persia had gained land in the Greek world

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